1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processor, information processing method and computer program for supporting content processing including recording or reproducing of contents, and more particularly to an information processor, information processing method and computer program for supporting content processing including viewing, recording, recording reservation and reproducing of TV program contents.
More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processor, information processing method and computer program for supporting content processing based on a view history of users, and particularly to an information processor, information processing method and computer program for supporting content processing for a particular recommended user based on a view history of each of a plurality of users.
2. Description of the Related Art
In these modern days, the role of the broadcast is so incredible in the information-oriented society. In particular, one of the most influential features of the broadcast is the TV broadcast that directly provides viewers with audio information together with video information. The broadcast technology includes a wide variety of techniques, such as signal processing, transmission/reception of the signals, processing of voice and video information, etc. The transmission modality for providing users with program contents includes a variety of systems, such as a broadcast system using an electric wave (e.g. a ground wave, satellite wave, etc.), a cable TV system, and an Internet program system using the computer communications, etc.
TVs have widely spread and are commonly installed in most houses. Many and unspecified persons view broadcast contents distributed from each broadcasting station. In another modality for viewing the broadcast contents, the viewers once record the received contents, and then reproduce the recorded contents any time they want.
As the result of digital technology development, it is possible to store a large volume of AV data including video and voice data. For example, available and inexpensive HDD (hard disk drive) has a capacity of several tens of GB or more. In such circumstances, available personal computers (PC) recently have a recorder at the HDD base and a system for recording/viewing TV programs.
An HDD can perform random access for recorded data. When reproducing the contents recorded in the HDD, there is no need to reproduce the contents sequentially from the beginning of the recorded program, unlike the conventional case of the video tape recorder. That is, the system can immediately reproduce a desired program (or a particular scene or part in a program) recorded in the HDD. A “sever-type broadcasting” system is one “viewing” modality for reproducing the broadcast content that has once been received and stored in a receiver (e.g. a TV or video recording/reproducing device) having a large volume of storage (e.g. HDD).
According to the “server-type broadcasting” system, users can not only receive the ordinary TV broadcast in real time, but also view pre-distributed video or audio information at a specified time. In addition, users can search for a particular scene in a program or view a digest of the program, using simultaneously distributed information.
However, as the result of the large volume of the HDD, a large number of programs are stored in a system that can record programs of several ten hours. In this case, the users may wonder which program to view first or which program to select. It is therefore necessary to effectively select, record or reserve those user-desired programs, and further to support the user to view the stored program content, otherwise the contents will be wasted. The recorder can store a large volume of recorded contents. Thus, it is hard to view all of the contents, so the users need to choose and select some desired contents. That is, it is important to perform a recording reservation operation effectively. This operation is considered to be beneficial for the users to view TV programs.
According to a known EPG (Electrical Program Guide) system, an electrical program guide is embodied in an image signal, and the signal is transmitted to a receiver and displayed on a display device of the receiver. In this case, the program guide is used for selecting a TV broadcasting program. A CE device (e.g. a HDD recorder) acquires the transmitted EPG during a recording operation of the broadcast program. Then, the acquired EPG is provided to a user, when the user reproduces or views the recorded program, resulting in some support for the views of the user.
A suggested program list display device can display a program list that is easy to understand, based on the EPG data, for example (see patent document 1). Such a program list display device can effectively display a list of some programs that the user specially desires to view, even if a number of programs correspond to a preference of the user.
According to a general method for supporting views of broadcast contents, users are provided with some recommended contents that should be viewed, recorded or reserved for recording. Such recommended contents are provided based on a result of statistical processing, using a view history of a number of users, for example.
Another suggested system provides a means for selecting programs based on conventional channel numbers or types of programs in the multi-channel broadcasting (see patent document 2). In addition to that, such a system provides the viewers with a new standard for selecting programs based on the audience rating. Further, the system enables the viewers to select a program channel (s) that a number of people view, upon a simple operation in a short period of time.
Still another system recommends the user's favorite program as estimated. This system first records a recording reservation history, recording history and reproducing/view history (hereinafter referred to as a user's program view history) representing a past action done on a video recorder. Then, the system obtains user preference regarding programs, based on the recorded information, thereby recommending the estimated favorite program.
Some system recommends an individual user an estimated program and searches for the individual user's preference, based on that user's program view history. Another system, on the other hand, statistically searches for a group of similar users whose view history is similar to that of a particular user, based on a user's program view history of a plurality of users, thereafter recommending a group of programs preferred by the group of similar users to the particular user. In such a system using the data of the plurality of users, a collaborative filtering process for user-based information is widely practiced (see non-patent document 1).
The collaborative filtering system in this case records a user preference as his/her past activity, and estimates the user's preference based on preference information of other users whose activity history is similar to that user. By the collaborative filtering, even if there are a large number of users and a large volume of user preference information, actual estimation can be achieved.
Even if the user program view history of the similar users is remarkably similar to that of the particular user, those similar users do not necessarily view the same type of programs (their favorite programs) all the time. If the view history of the similar users is simply tracked, the system outputs a result including user-interesting information mixed up with uninteresting information. This results in providing unclear recommendation information.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-308547 (only JP)    [Patent Document 2] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-261609 (only JP)    [Non-patent Document 1] Sarwar, B., Karypis, G., Konstan, J., and Riedl, J., “Item-based Collaborative Filtering Recommendation” (In Proc. Of the 10th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW10), pp. 285-295, May 2001) (http://www.aist-nara.ac.jp/˜naoki-o/mct/mct30_November-19. 2002.doc)